Interviews

Have you heard the one about the two London cabbies? According to popular cliché, taxi drivers in the UK capital are garrulous, colourful characters who love a good natter with their customers. Max Colson's short doc shows them in a different light.

Hannah Jayanti describes her 'Truth or Consequences' as a “speculative documentary.” That’s to say, a film set in the near future in a world subtly different to the one we know. In the America Jayanti shows, citizens are beginning to leave earth as commercial space travel takes off.

When we speak about war, we seldom think about the women left behind on the battlefield. Cláudia Alves seeks to address this in her new project, pitched at Nebulae Arché section of DocLisboa 2020.

The Dutch doc feature project Here Be Dragons (Terra Incógnita), about an alien landscape in southern Spain where astrobiologists ‘dig the soil to fuel the technological revolution and to search for life in the Universe’, was pitched as part of the Nebulae RAW programme of DocLisboa 2020.

“He’s a guy who is dirty on his skin but is very pure in his heart,” says director Jindřich Andrš of his lead character, former miner Tomas. “I didn't say this when raising money for the film. Maybe if I had, I would have raised more...”

Ada Ushpiz’s 'Children' has its world premiere in DOK Leipzig having already received huge praise from the festival’s director, Christoph Terhechte, who called it “heart-breaking.” In the film, sold by Cinephil, Israeli director Ushpiz follows kids in Palestine who’ve been drawn into the insurgency against the occupying Israeli forces.

Four films from Ket & Doc, the bold new programme for kids’ documentaries initiated by the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) in 2018, have been chosen for the Kids DOK section at DOK Leipzig - a strong endorsement of the success of the venture.

Ahead of its October 27 kick-off, Ji.hlava IDFF director Marek Hovorka talks to Business Doc Europe about the decision to go online in 2020, the need to showcase African documentary and the ongoing essential role played by experimental film, as underlined within the festival programme.

Ahead of the 63rd edition of his festival, Dok Leipzig artistic director Christoph Terhechte talks to Business Doc Europe about a streamlined programme in 2020, and how we should prepare for an equally streamlined doc industry looking forward.

In recent years the lives of footballing geniuses Cruyff, Ibrahimović and Maradona have been given the full cinematic treatment, courtesy of leading European auteurs. Now it is the turn of Italian Francesco Totti, the one-team World Cup-winning neo-god from the Eternal City where, appropriately, Alex Infascelli’s new film word-premiered this week.